A farmer harvests fresh pepper in the central province of Quang Tri. The country's pepper exports are expected to increase in volume and value against last year. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoai Nam

HA NOI —

The exports were expected to show a year-on-year increase of 6.1 per cent in volume to 101,400 tonnes and 3.7 per cent in value to US$742.3 million this year due to a low supply from India on the world market, said Nguyen Viet Chien, director of the ministry's Informatics and Statistics Centre.

India, the second largest pepper producer in the world, is tipped to show a year-on-year decline of 5,000 tonnes to 43,000 tonnes of pepper this year.

The latest forecast for Viet Nam is higher than that predicted in December 2011, which was a year-on-year decline of 17.8 per cent in pepper export volume but a year-on-year increase of 1.7 per cent in export value.

Meanwhile, the Viet Nam Pepper Association said the total national output of pepper would reach 95,000-100,000 tonnes of pepper this year, 10 per cent lower than in 2011. It was previously forecast the output decline would be 15 per cent, Chien said.

The expectation of low output in Viet Nam and India, the two largest pepper producers in the world, has pushed pepper prices up on the global market after a fall in January 2012.

Chien said that in the first quarter this year export prices of Vietnamese pepper jumped to $6,816 per tonne or 42.4 per cent over the same period last year.

Therefore, in the first quarter, Viet Nam's pepper exports saw a year-on-year surge of 30 per cent in value to $164 million though a decline of 7.5 per cent in volume to 24,000 tonne against the same period last year.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development wants to expand the pepper crop to 150,000ha with exports of $1 billion by 2015.

The association said the country needed a comprehensive strategy to add value in pepper products to achieve ambitious targets.

The strategy would have to focus on encouraging pepper producers to invest in processing technologies to add value and build brand names for Vietnamese pepper products.

It also said export companies should hire capable marketing staff to promote Vietnamese pepper products at prices close to world rates.

The country had 50,000ha under pepper last year and exported 120,000 tonnes worth $720 million. — VNS